Evan and Stacey Smith

The miniature architectural installation entitled Liminal Spaces has been showing in the Bernoudy Gallery of the Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis for the past month. The co-artists, the husband and wife team of Evan and Stacey Smith, have assembled a combination of original sculptures, some designed especially for the unique space of the Bernoudy. This unique exhibit plays with the intersection of space and light and queries the function and symbolism of sacred spaces. By means of a very minimalist approach, the artists invite observers into an open conversation and search for meaning while at the same time posing questions of access: Who may actually enter spaces intended to lead persons to transcendent experience? How may the same container hold a variety of contents, blurring the lines between sacred and secular? And how does light redefine space, acting as a universal revealer of mystery, surprise and transcendence?

It was my pleasure to visit the exhibit and converse with the Smiths on March 30, 2019.

              Reliquary #3

When the Rector of the Episcopal church which Evan and Stacey attend asked Evan to work on icons for the church it launched him into a new phase of his artistic endeavors. This included research on iconography in its many forms – church art and windows, illustrated manuscripts and Gospels, reliquaries and sacred objects. And that project was translated into an enlarged aesthetic that would flood into the public forum through light. Liminal Spaces is not the first effort of the Smiths to translate traditional concepts into new forms, nor will it be their last; they are already conceptualizing and    experimenting with the neither/nor of infinity – the non-dual nature of infinity, the ways it may fill a locale and yet transcend it, here yet more than here.

              Liminal Space #1

As a team Evan and Stacey work and play with the concepts and projects together, with Evan providing most of the material construction and Stacey creating and overseeing the manifestation of light.

Most of their “spaces within spaces” in the exhibit play with the sense of passage through transitional or transformational space; one enters a space through sight, following passages created by form, light and color. Known symbols – such as hallways, passages, doors, spiral staircases, allusions to stained glass windows, lofty dome spaces or deep wells – provide the landmarks for a journey that must be taken by the one doing the seeing. Hence a relationship between the artist and the appreciator, the host and the guest, is found in the liminal undefined space between them. In a sense, the artist serves as liminal guide, providing the outlines of passage, the raw material with which the traveler may find a pathway.

            Liminal Space #9

The arts have always existed at the edges of the known and unknown, exploring truths in non-rational ways, combining familiar coordinates with new perspectives that challenge our notions of reality. At its best, the work of artists like Evan and Stacey Smith takes us places we certainly would not go without them. It is born of creativity, spiritual aspiration and a longing for beauty. And for a few weeks at the Sheldon in St. Louis that has certainly been what curious pilgrims have found for themselves.

For more information about what Evan and Stacey are up to and their latest projects that demonstrate a union between art and science and the use of newer technologies including 3D printing, laser cutting, CNC machining, and custom fabrication and electronics, visit them at their website www.evanandstacey.com or on Instagram@evanandstacey.